April 30, 2025 • 40 mins
Join us for another episode of Uncanny Book Club and explore one of the most influential storytelling sagas in comic book history.
In episode 2 we discuss X-Men #96 - 98, which starts immediately after Thunderbird’s death. Moire McTaggert joins the story, the X-Men battle a demon, Eric the Red has a mind controlled Havok and Polaris fight the X-Men, and the team is ambushed by sentinels while celebrating Christmas.
Have feedback or questions for the show? Email uncannybookclub@gmail.com.
Uncanny Book Club is a biweekly read-along through Chris Claremont’s 16-year long X-Men run, which includes some of the most iconic X-Men stories.
Whether you’re revisiting these stories, are reading it for the first time like us, or just want to ride along for the discussion — we hope you’ll join us every other Wednesday.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
Hello and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Faderspiel and joiningme today is my co-host Adam
Ward.
Hello.
Hello, how are you doing today?
Good, man.
I'm excited to talk about thisnext set of arcs that we're
looking at.
I feel like this is like a good,solid few issues that we're
going to cover today.
Maybe on a scale of 1 to 10,what would you rate it before
(00:31):
getting into the meat andpotatoes?
I would say that we probablyjump up to about like a 7.
To me, this arc that we're goingto talk about is kind of the
leading into the next big one,right?
Where things, for me anyways,reading it really felt things
picked up.
All right.
Well, in this podcast, we arediscussing Chris Claremont's
(00:52):
legendary X-Men run as we readthrough it for the very first
time.
We hope that you'll join us andread alongside us or just stick
around and listen in.
Thank you for watching.
Their first mission, as well astheir ill-fated mission to stop
(01:13):
Count Nefaria from letting loosewith America's nuclear weapons.
While the team was successful,issue 95 ends in the death of
Thunderbird.
Issue 96 deals with theimmediate aftermath of
Thunderbird's death.
Cyclops is ruminating and in amix of frustration and grief, he
unleashes his optic blastwithout restraint.
(01:36):
He ends up destroying a bunch oftrees and this thing called the
Cairn The rest of the team isbusy training in the danger
room, and Wolverine gets alittle too aggressive, as
Wolverine is known to do.
And after Nightcrawler teaseshim, he maybe almost
accidentally kills Nightcrawler.
Moira Metagurt shows up.
(01:56):
She is an old flame of ProfessorX and a scientific expert on
mutants.
She joins the mansion as ahousekeeper.
a role that she might be alittle too qualified for.
The demon Kirok escapes thecairn and chases Cyclops back to
the mansion.
There's a big fight here withMoira even joining in with a
machine gun, which is a prettyfunny visual.
(02:18):
Wolverine thinks he's killed itat one point, but Kurok begins
to get back up.
The Professor enters its mindwhen it's weakened and learns
how they can defeat thecreature.
Storm is sent to seal the cairnand destroy the demon at its
source.
She unleashes a powerful blastthat ends up destroying it, and
Kurok disappears.
In this issue, we also get aB-story showing Colonel Rossi of
(02:41):
the U.S.
Army inspecting ProjectArmageddon and its director,
Stephen Lang.
He threatens to shut down theproject, and later on, So Adam,
what are your overall thoughtsabout issue 96?
I thought that it was okay.
I think I touched last time onthe fact that, you know, when we
(03:02):
were talking about Krakoa, itwas just kind of this big beast.
And similarly, that's what wehave here, right?
We have, in essence, twodifferent stories, but at its
roots, really, like at the endof the day, this is a story of
Scott Summers, D.
And I think unfairly, we seeXavier again, essentially giving
(03:26):
Scott a really hard time for asituation he finds himself in,
right?
So, I mean, Scott Summers isregarded by many as one of the
greatest leaders in all ofMarvel.
And Scott is going through themotions here, right?
Like he's coming to terms withthe loss of his first teammate.
You know, the first of many,really, in his storied career.
He is clearly grieving.
(03:47):
And Charles is, as we've talkedabout, has been kind of an
asshole.
And he says, this is a quote, heisn't letting it show.
but he is deeply affected and isbrooding, making mistakes.
So he's giving him a hard timefor grieving, which for anybody
who's gone through that processis very difficult and can come
(04:09):
in waves, right?
Like you can't control when thattakes place.
So it felt like Scott waswrongfully being prosecuted for
feeling his feels, you know?
Yeah, I feel like in some ofthese early issues that we've
gone through, the professor hasa certain...
Yeah, which is, you know, maybeit's the inexperience, right?
(04:37):
Like, I'm trying to put intoperspective for myself, reading
this, you know, this isn't theX-Men that we know today.
Right.
The X-Men we know today arebuilt off of the stories that
Chris told, right?
And we see that here, right?
When we talked last time aboutthe Krakoa era and how we were
(04:58):
witnessing a lot of similaritiesbetween what Jonathan Hickman
wrote in the Krakoa stories andhere right and we see that again
today as we discuss you know thethe introduction of Moira as you
said it was a very funny sceneseeing her come out with the
machine gun to blast Kurok itwas it was very great and as you
(05:19):
also mentioned she's wayoverqualified and it's almost
insulting to see her employed asa maid for Charles Xavier, who,
as you also mentioned, is aformer flame.
So he has a romantic connectionwith this woman, and here he is
hiring her to be a maid in hismansion.
(05:39):
Speaking of romanticconnections, this one's got a
little bit of like a meet cutething going on for Moira and
Banshee, Sean Cassidy.
I mean, I think it was a one waymeet cute.
Well, probably.
But, you know, it starts withhim talking smack about like,
oh, the new housekeeper is goingto be some like old, ugly, blah,
(06:00):
blah, blah.
And then he like answers thedoor and he's like, oh, good
heavens.
Look.
Banshee is constantly surroundedby people who are literally half
his age.
And four times as pretty as him.
Yeah.
What did you think of Kirok?
I think he's he's fine I meanthis issue really to me feels
(06:21):
kind of like a cap on the lasttwo with them kind of invading
Valhalla and then Thunderbird'sdeath and then this is sort of
like kind of the end cap to thatstoryline transition into kind
of what's coming next he feelsokay to me as sort of like this
one issue villain but I couldalso see how you know maybe it
(06:41):
would be interesting to spendlike a few issues with him and
expand on what more like I thinkthis issue is like very very
brief into like who's this dudewhat's he trying to do there's
not a whole lot just becauseit's very self-contained but I
wouldn't be against the idea ofseeing more of him I guess or
the idea of him playing a biggerrole yeah I agree I think
(07:05):
knowing that there arecharacters in the future
especially who kind of floatwith mutant powers kind of like
in this demon space like magicperhaps in the future you know
of x-men right like you see Idon't know if that happens, but
I would imagine it would bereasonable to think.
Yep.
I'm also unsure about whether ornot he's someone that makes a
(07:28):
comeback at any point.
I think certainly the demon typethat they are does, I think,
come back and play a factor inmagic specifically.
I also wanted to talk aboutStorm because we see Storm again
in this story essentially be thefinishing blow.
And I want to applaud Chris formaking Storm this incredibly
(07:51):
powerful and interestingcharacter, like from backstory
to creation, right?
We all know Storm is beingawesome today, right?
with her Storm powers.
But we're now seeingconsecutively, in almost every
issue we see Storm, she isessentially a powerhouse, which,
you know, makes sense.
But this is at a time beforethere was so much lore of the
(08:13):
X-Men to really kind of likepaint this picture of what's
strong, what's not strong.
And Storm here, again, is justincredibly strong, being able to
get away from this fight anddestroy or reseal the Cairn.
Absolutely.
And while we're on the topic ofStorm, this issue does give us a
(08:33):
brief look into her past wherewe can learn a little bit more
about who she is and what kindof all brought her here.
And one thing that you can inferfrom this issue is that she has
an issue with claustrophobia.
This is kind of the first teasethat we get at that.
We see a flashback of her kindof walking presumably with her
(08:54):
parents, skips to the next sceneof her, I guess, covered in the
rubble of a building thatcollapsed, and she shouts out, I
must be free, once we kind ofget a look back at the modern
time.
I really like kind of the subtlenods to these character features
that we are starting to see comethrough, because this is a team,
(09:14):
like, I'm not, maybe you know,but I'm not exactly sure how
much involvement Chris had withthe giant-sized book that kind
of kick-started this team.
I would have to imagine some.
Right.
If he was taking on this nextteam.
Although I think those are X-Menthat are specifically credited
to the writer, the author andthe artist on the book.
(09:37):
So if this was just kind of likecharacters that were given to
Chris without very much input,then I think he's doing a really
nice job of trying to rod in thebackgrounds of these characters
and kind of give them interestsand fears that are going to play
out.
Right.
And you're right.
We are seeing this with stormand we've seen it similarly with
other characters even in theirkind of like brief intros we got
(10:01):
a sense of the type of peoplethat they are we were able to I
think glean that Kurt isreligious that Colossus has this
larger family and comes fromkind of like humble roots and is
I think kind of like theyouthfulness of this book the
most naive one maybe and we evensaw that when he jumped out of
the helicopter right like withthis base assumption that you'd
(10:24):
probably be fine he doesn't knowif he's gonna be but he assumes
he is Alright, well, pickingthings up with issue 97,
Professor X is seen plagued bynightmares involving aliens, and
he's worried that he's startingto go mad.
We see Lorna and Havok arespending some quality time
together, and they're ambushedand their minds get taken over.
(10:45):
Professor X makes good on histalks of going on vacation,
something that he brought up inthe last issue, and he ends up
taking a flight.
Just as he leaves, themind-controlled Lorna, now going
by Polaris, and Havok attempt todestroy the plane.
There's a fight between them andthe X-Men with Havok popping in
and out of his mind control.
(11:06):
We learn that Eric the Red isthe true villain behind this
attempt on Xavier's life.
Lorna is taken out by Storm andthe three current adversaries
flee with Cyclops lining up ashot and deciding not to take
it.
This ends up rubbing Wolverinethe wrong way and the two
briefly get physical beforeStorm stops things from
(11:29):
escalating any further.
At the very end, we see a singleframe continuing last issue's B
story and see that Lang ismonitoring the X-Men with a
tease that the Sentinels will bereturning next issue.
So, the thing that I found mostexciting about this issue,
Polaris finally has a name.
No more spoilers that I have toworry about.
(11:50):
What do you think of her designhere?
It is...
Interesting.
I can understand why she keptthe name Polaris and I can
understand why she didn't keepthis design for her current
costumes.
Yeah, I think I'm definitelymore of a fan of the modern day
appearance for sure.
Purple was definitely, I think,a popular choice for characters
(12:11):
at the time.
It feels more villainous, whichI guess is probably good.
The thing around, I guess, maybelike a cowl or what would we
call that sort of...
It's like a collar.
Yeah, it's very large.
It is very large.
I agree.
On this top, of observationaloccurrences in this book what
are your thoughts on Kurt'shuman form that we see so he has
(12:32):
a some sort of like what is itexactly like a transistor
believe it's image inducer thankyou yes it is referred to that
at some point what do you thinkof his appearance it's very
1970s Actually, it goes back alittle further than that.
This is actually, I'm going tobutcher this.
(12:53):
I want to say it's Errol Flynn.
It's like a movie star from theearly 1900s.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Oh, damn.
Was that explained at one point?
I don't know if it's directlycalled out, but it's one of
those things, if you look inmaybe a trivia or something for
the issue, it calls it out asbeing what's happening.
(13:13):
But no, I want to say the nameof the actor is Errol Flynn.
Yes, you are correct.
Yeah, Errol Flynn.
I think that is how I would alsosay this.
(13:47):
personal life.
His most notable roles includedRobin Hood.
Well, there you go.
Doesn't get more swashbucklerythan Robin Hood, really.
Speaking of womanizing, him andPeter are both interested in
checking out a bunch of ladiesat the airport.
So maybe this look that he'spicked kind of fits out for what
he's going for.
Very possible.
(14:07):
Very possible.
It is interesting.
I'm currently looking at a pagewhere one of the plane, like the
plane crash occurs, where likeit looks as though like the
plane literally flies throughanother plane.
I don't know if that's what'shappened here, but this is right
after Polaris attacks Jean Grey.
It kind of looks like that.
(14:27):
I think what's going on is Havokis destroying other planes as
he's trying to aim for that one.
It's very strange.
If we look at the panel thatwe're looking at where they
mentioned World War III, it'sinteresting because right after
that one, the very next panel,we see the X-Men lying in the
rubble of that airplane,essentially, and then Havoc and
(14:50):
Polaris are both just kind ofchasing after the plane that I
believe Xavier's on.
So I'm re-looking at this page.
So if you see the top panel, thetop right has the pilots
pointing at Havoc and Polaris.
Okay, so you can see that Havocis letting loose his sound
blast.
And in the next panel behind theplane, you can see the same kind
(15:12):
of pattern, the circular patternthat is clearly the sound wave
that's kind of emanating fromhim.
And so I think you are correct.
That is debris from other planescaused by the sound wave as
Charles Xavier's plane is tryingto get away.
And then in the next page, wesee this larger, almost like a
jumbo jet is probably how Iwould describe it.
(15:33):
Looking at this now, this isn'tCharles Xavier's plane crashing
into this, which is how I viewedit originally.
This is actually Kurt hittingHavok, as we see, right?
And that beam destroying theplane.
This is all starting to make alittle bit more sense and less
that Charles Xavier's pilots arerecklessly moving across this
airfield trying to get away.
Although reckless to avoid beinghit, but not reckless enough to
(15:56):
be the ones actually destroyingthese planes.
And you know, they might be.
Now that I'm looking at theplane that Charles is on, it is
a StarCorp plane.
So it's not like he's flyingcoach or anything on like a
regular flight.
I'm assuming that this is like aprivate jet situation.
Yeah, you're 100% right.
Maybe this is a speciallydesigned plane.
I don't know.
But what did you think of Ericthe Red?
(16:17):
So not knowing a lot of whathappened in the comics prior to
this, I thought his introductionwas incredibly confusing.
The you're Eric the Red, but youcan't be Eric the Red.
I was Eric the Red.
So that's a quote from Cyclopswhen we're kind of confronted by
like who is the true villainbehind what's going on in this
(16:38):
issue.
I had no idea what that meantand that was incredibly
confusing.
Yeah, I agree.
I did kind of look up a littlebit afterwards about Eric the
Red.
I still don't know that I havegarnered enough information to
want to talk about it and alsoto avoid spoilers because I know
Eric the Red comes back at somepoint.
I didn't want to spoil anythingfor myself.
(16:59):
I really don't like the design.
It's very bizarre.
Hey, speaking of that, if youdon't like this design, you
should look up what Cyclopslooked like when he was dressed
as Eric the Red, because it'sway better.
And by way better, I mean itlooks like the slutty clothes
that I make a starian wear inBaldur's Gate 3.
(17:21):
Wow, that is very revealing.
It even has like little nipplecovers for him.
It's such a bizarre choice.
The Cyclops Eric the Redcostume.
I mean, it's not far off fromthe Eric the Red we see in the
book.
Although the one we see in thisbook has full pants for one.
Not this with the booty shortsgoing on in the nipple covers.
(17:41):
Well, Scott Summers has greatlegs.
I don't deny that.
You gotta show them off.
Don't deny that.
Yeah, I kind of like, again, ifthis feels a little thrown in,
though I suspect we'll have somesort of payoff in the future.
But right now it just kind offeels like, oh, all right, Eric,
the red, you're here and thenyou're gone.
Very shortly after, againbecause of Storm, overpowering
(18:05):
Polaris.
Yeah, it is a little odd as kindof like looking at it as just
like a one issue and then even alot of what's shown in this
issue isn't really resolved orcontinued in the next one.
But I think we're going to startto see things like that pop up a
lot where we're getting, youknow, a storyline and then...
(18:26):
Maybe it's that next issue, acouple issues down the line, a
few issues we might see itcontinuing on and getting picked
up again.
The other thing I just wanted toquickly touch on, as somebody
who's been pretty defensive ofScott Summers to this point, we
see him very harshly last shownat Wolverine after Wolverine, I
think very fairly pointed outthat he should have fired at his
(18:48):
brother and at Polaris and Ericthe Red, especially given the
fact that Cyclops very clearlyhas some sort of self-control,
right?
He has talked about how he canlet his I-beam go at full power
or that there's a power range ofsome kind so he is hesitant
because he doesn't want to killhis brother right fair enough
(19:08):
but wolverine very obviouslytells him you need to like hit
them you gotta knock them downand very cyclops acts not like
himself up to this point he getsa little cheated and tells logan
that he will kill him yeah imean i feel like at this point
we're still very nearthunderbird's death and we are
(19:30):
probably still seeing him kindof still not in maybe like his
back to his baseline as far asframe of mind he is still like
reeling over that and upset withthat it is a pretty big
overreaction especially since ifhe were to sort of take that
shot in this very I guess clicheaction movie thing where they've
set up where it's like take theshot take the shot and then they
fire the gun in the air yes yeahI feel like he could take the
(19:53):
shot and then storm could catchtheir friends but again you know
don't think too deeply on itkind of a situation I think but
Wolverine's pretty harsh withhim I mean he calls him gutless
that's that's a pretty big dealin the 70s yeah sure yeah that's
that's fair and I alsomistakenly I went and looked
while you were saying that hedoes not threaten to go
Wolverine but we will see thingsunfold over the next couple of
(20:16):
issues where that will changenot necessarily towards
Wolverine but we will see Scottbecome lost in himself again and
lose control of his anger Ithink the tease that we get here
at the end of the book to me iswhat I have been waiting for
this looming figure of somethingthing coming.
And the Sentinels represent theboogeyman for mutants, right?
(20:37):
They are the epitome ofeverything that hates them.
So we get this tease of what'sto come.
And I'm very excited.
Very, very excited.
It is always fun to see aclassic villain show up.
And I believe this would be kindof our first look at someone
that is sort of that classicvillain of, you know, they've
been in the issues before this,and then they've had like a
(21:00):
staying power over the last 50years.
100%.
And Lang is interesting becausehe becomes this sticking foil
for the X-Men, as you kind ofalluded to.
And I think this team has neededsomething to kind of bring them
back into the X-Men universethat has kind of been
established to this point andbecause when you see the X-Men
(21:21):
walk away right like we see theoriginal X-Men walk away and
during that time it's it'sstrange to me that they would
walk away into a world that isgoing to hate them the way that
they are right and each one ofthem can blend in with society
fairly well so that's not animpossible thing to do but even
up to this point we haven'treally seen a ton of music
mutant hate with these newX-Men, right?
(21:45):
We've seen a bit of it withCount Nefarious, but he was just
kind of a prick to begin with.
It wasn't, it's not the same asthis.
This is, Lang is literallysomebody who hates mutants,
right?
He hates everything that theyrepresent.
And the X-Men were built torepresent that sort of real life
(22:05):
hate that can happen.
And that's, this kind of bringsus back to the core of what the
X-Men are.
were kind of built around.
So I'm very excited.
Can I ask you a weird randomquestion?
On the very last page of thisissue, whose arm is that?
So we see Stephen laying over acontrol board and looking at a
monitor of the X-Men at theairport.
But then we also have like thisscene directly behind him where
(22:28):
it looks like, is that somebodyelse looking at laying on a
monitor?
Or what's happening here?
It kind of looks that way.
That's not something that Ipicked up on my first time
reading this.
I did find it odd.
And now that you've pointed itout, I can't not see it.
I'm just trying to quickly lookat the yellow paneling to see if
it gives any indication of whatwe're kind of seeing here like
(22:50):
we see this kind of likeprologue of Cyclops walking away
I do like that there's a littleshot of a sentinel leg oh yeah
there is do yeah and the horrorof that day will be that they'll
kill without ever knowing thereason why that they won't be
men at all merely puppetsdancing on a string Well, there
we go.
(23:11):
I guess we'll have to wait andsee.
Maybe it is related.
I'm not entirely sure.
It almost looks a bit like aspider.
It does kind of look like that,but it's definitely not.
I don't think anyways.
Where was Peter Parker when thisissue came out?
Where's Get Me Spider-Man?
It would have been funny ifSpider-Man was on the next
cover, but not the case.
(23:31):
If only.
If only.
But we do get this really coolshot of the Sentinels on top of
a building.
Again, with the Sentinels areback, enough said.
Which, again, I think that'svery warranted and, again, just
roots them back down into X-Menlore, really.
What did you kind of think ofthis?
This is a bit of the capstone ofthe setup, I guess, is probably
(23:53):
the best way of thinking it aswe do get quite the escalation,
right?
Yeah, I think looking at thesethree issues, 97 is for me more
of kind of like a low point.
96 is sort of that end cap onlike an earlier situation.
I feel like 98 is a reallyexciting issue and there ends up
kind of being a lot to unpackfrom it.
(24:13):
Yeah, I think of all threestories, I had the most to
discuss with this issue.
So why don't you tee us up?
So in issue 98, it's Christmastime in the Marvel Universe and
the X-Men are out for somequality time in Manhattan.
Scott and Jean eventually splitoff, as does Banshee and Moira,
who are now dating as well.
Everyone is sort of quicklyinterrupted, though, because, as
(24:36):
the cover of this issue let usknow about, the Sentinels are
back.
Cyclops and Jean Grey take onthe first batch, but eventually
Jean is kidnapped.
Banshee and Wolverine are seenrushing off to do battle, and
Storm ends up saving Cyclopsfrom a deadly fall before
fouling another Sentinel withher winds.
We learn that Wolverine andBanshee were also taken taken by
(24:57):
the Sentinels.
Things then cut over toProfessor X's vacation with Dr.
Peter Korbo, director of theUN's Project StarCorp, where the
two of them are fishing on ayacht.
A Sentinel attack occurs thereas well, leading to the
destruction of the boat andProfessor X also being taken.
We see the X-Men restrained andwith a bunch of science stuff
(25:18):
attached to them.
Dr.
Lang gloats and smacks Jeanafter the two of them have a bit
of a tiff.
This ends up enraging Wolverine,who breaks free and begins
attacking the Project Armageddonthugs.
The X-Men fight their way free,but after they break through
some walls, we get a shot ofBanshee's shocked face.
Dr.
Corbo finds the remaining X-Menat the mansion, and between all
(25:40):
of them, it's deduced that thekidnapped X-Men were taken into
space.
Yeah, and space looks awesome inthese books.
It looks so good.
Even as we saw at the beginningof the last issue, right, with
Charles kind of like lookingout, having these I mean, I
interpreted it like they werestarships.
It just looked awesome.
(26:01):
I love the way that they depictspace in these books.
We'll save that conversation forlater.
What are your thoughts on, like,given that this is the first
time we're seeing Sentinels,what are your general thoughts
on how they look?
There's something really, Idon't know what it is.
The Sentinels look really good.
To me, they don't seem verydated.
There's something very timelessabout this design, which I think
(26:24):
is not necessarily their firstdesign.
this is at some point there wasa redesign I always sort of just
like cringe thinking about whatwe got for like the X-Men movies
for Sentinels they just don'tlook like good and right to me
like this is very close to whatends up being in the cartoon
that was in the 90s and isn'tthat far off from how the
(26:44):
Sentinels look today Idefinitely have you know we
talked about in our last episodeabout how I think the X-Men
cartoon it for us anyways islike a very specific moment in
time that we associate with thex-men and so my first exposure
to the sentinels was a hundredpercent in that show and seeing
them depicted here like i knowexactly what this is there is
(27:06):
something very unsettling abouttheir appearance it's this maybe
it's their eyes like this darkthey just have like the dark
eyes dead cold yeah the deadcold eyes i can see how they
would strike fear and mutantkind i mean hell in humans you
don't even need to be a mutantto be afraid of these things
they are intimidating dating oneobservation I had when we see
(27:30):
this battle taking place betweenthe X-Men and the Sentinels
Scott uses his eye blast throughhis sunglasses and I don't know
that I've ever seen that beforebecause aren't they in practice
essentially a shield for hiseyes so if you look at that
panel it's almost it's more hisglasses have like a flip up the
(27:50):
ruby quartz lens flips up ohyou're totally right that's how
his vice works too where it'sjust like an up and down door
that moves on him so he can likecrack them open and have a small
blast or he can open open themand have more come out thank you
thank you for pointing that outit was bothering me when i was
reading it thinking what thehell is this it's really easy to
(28:13):
miss especially because it'sshown a few panels back first
where it's very easy to see likeoh his themes are coming out of
his sunglasses it looks weirdthough it does look weird but
that's kind of all that's allflip up lenses i Sorry to the
flip up lens gang out there.
He needs those transitions forhimself.
So we see Scott kind of takecare of a couple of these.
(28:34):
You mentioned Storm gets in onthe action as well.
And no surprise, Team Storm.
I love that we finally get tosee Xavier on vacation.
Number one, has long talkedabout vacation because he's
stressed out.
And when they are attacked bythe Sentinels, he uses his Mind
Blast, as it is described in thepanel, on the Sentinel and it
(28:55):
seemed to work.
Do you know if there is anin-lore reason why Mind Blasts
work on a robot?
So this is something Somethingthat I looked up a little bit.
Apparently it's one of thosecomic inconsistencies where
sometimes Professor X can mindblast the Sentinel, sometimes he
can't.
Okay, the rule of cool.
Yeah, essentially they're justruling rule of cool, but when I
(29:18):
read this I was like, what isgoing on?
I'm glad that I wasn't crazy inthinking this.
I thought it was very bizarre,frankly speaking.
You mentioned the tit for tatthat Jean has with Lange.
I wrote down a very specificquote that she references.
Where's your swastika, Lange?
You don't look dressed withoutit.
I think I laughed so hardreading it because I was not
(29:40):
expecting it.
And it really, I think, paintsthe picture, as I was previously
talking about how Langerepresents pure evil, right?
Pure hatred.
And so her making that commentlike really sets the scene a lot
without having to have a lot ofexposition around why he hates
mutants.
It's also a lot of these oldissues have sort of a it's 50
(30:04):
years ago, like everybody'scalling each other like Mr.
Buster, things like that.
I mean, that sounds likesomething that you could throw
in a comic today and that readsnormal to me.
Like, that's just like kind of agood insult.
Yeah, I mean, considering thiswould have come out in the
1970s, with that in mind, tohave that kind of that picture
painted of a character is verytelling, right?
(30:24):
That would paint a very specificperson in people's minds as it
should today.
But in the 1970s, you're a lotcloser to the Second World War.
And that image, of a nazi is ithink very fresh in their minds
reading it now i mean i knowexactly what i'm thinking about
(30:44):
good on chris i think it wassuch a clever comeback and i
think really paints gene as avery clever character yeah both
like mentally and with wit andkind of speaking of that
situation uh we see wolverinepair out in anger after he sees
gene is essentially slapped it'sinteresting to me and especially
in the context that at the startof this issue it's mentioned
(31:06):
that the x-men have beentogether for almost a full year
at this point it's interestingto me that nobody knew that
wolverine's claws were part ofhim and not like his costume i
think that also still speaks alot to who wolverine is he's a
loner he's very guarded andisn't one to just like share all
(31:28):
these things about him do theyeven know that he has a healing
factor i'm not sure i don't eventhink that's been discussed yet
really if i'm not mistaken butWe do see, again, like this
really cool action sequence onthe space station with all these
sentinels.
It really kind of creates animage of how vast this space
station must be, right?
(31:49):
To have these sentinels, whichare at least 15 feet high, maybe
more, you know, like they'rehuge.
Somewhere between 15 and 30,depending on how it's drawn.
Yeah, 100%.
So you have this really coolfight that happens on the space
station.
Cassidy blasting through thehull of this space station.
into space as the X-Men aretrying to figure out, well,
(32:10):
they're not anywhere on Earth.
Where could they be?
Oh, they're in space.
There they are.
I think a very fun way of endingthe issue and kind of like these
three books and I think setssuch a great foundation for the
next set where we get thecontinuation of the story, which
is, you know, I'm hooked, right?
Like after reading this, I'mready, man.
(32:32):
I've been waiting for this.
Like I've been waiting for theChris Claremont storytelling
that has made this run soimportant to people and this is
like I'm so I'm so jazzed I'm sojazzed 100% I think this this
issue and like kind of the nextfew really sort of pick up the
pace a lot yeah and I mean itstarts to make sense right like
(32:52):
you have an X-Men team that's ayear now under their belts it
paints this picture of a familyunit more so than you know we've
had just one or two adventuresyou know there's this suspension
of belief that you have to havewhen you read these kinds of
books of you know there arethings happening that we don't
see right like there was anarrative taking place over a
(33:12):
course of time you as a readerhave to buy into the idea that
the x-men are going onadventures that we don't see
right like they maybe they'renot super big but there are
things happening in the worldand especially in a book like
this where you have like a largetime gap right that kind of
takes place over the course ofthe books because literally last
issue like i'm sorry not lastissue but last episode they were
(33:33):
just formed right so like we'reonly like seven books into this
run and And here we've nowestablished a year under their
belts.
It really paints a picture of ateam that's coming together and
makes a lot of the interactionsthat we're going to see in the
coming issues all that moreimportant.
So there's one more Wolverinething that I wanted to mention
before we move on from that.
(33:53):
Did you notice when they'recaptive and they're doing all
the science stuff on them thatthey make a comment about him
having like a unique nature orhe's not like reading is like a
mutant at first?
Yes, yes.
So I don't I don't know ifYou're aware of this.
I did a little bit of internetresearch because I was curious
about that.
Apparently, Wolverine wasoriginally planned to be an
(34:15):
actual real-life Wolverineanimal that was morphed into a
man by the high evolutionary,but they ended up dropping that
storyline.
Stop.
Okay, hold on.
A literal Wolverine turned toman?
Like a reverse werewolf?
Yes.
Well, I mean, the HighEvolutionary does a lot of weird
(34:35):
man-animal hybrid situations,but he was supposed to be like,
hey, we'll turn a wolverine intoa human and see what happens
kind of a situation, I guess.
Thank goodness they scrappedthat.
What a terrible idea.
Yeah, his real origin is alittle bit cooler.
Yeah, way cooler.
Yeah, the line here says, quote,I don't know, sir.
Is this Wolverine a mutant?
(34:57):
His readings are nothing likethe others.
But mutant or no, whatever theWolverine is, he isn't human.
And then he brags about hischrome alloy shackles that are
unbreakable.
And then instantly broken.
Yeah, yeah.
Within a couple of seconds,Wolverine just cuts them off and
(35:18):
that's that.
And then we see this mass exodusof people.
The only other thing I wanted tobring up with this issue in
particular, I don't know howmany of like the weird cameos
that you caught in this one.
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
No, maybe.
Like I do recall seeing Beast atone point, maybe.
Am I crazy?
I don't think Beast, but there'sthe panel when Gene and Scott
(35:40):
kiss.
You have Jack Kirby and Stan Leehaving a discussion about like,
what are they doing?
They didn't do this when we hadthe book.
And then I think at the veryfirst page, actually, They're by
the ice skating rink.
Dr.
Doom is ice skating.
Wait, that's supposed to beStanley.
He looks like Dr.
(36:00):
Strange.
A little bit.
But yeah, so then in addition toJack Kirby, Stanley, and Dr.
Doom, apparently, I forget whichpanel it is, but Lois Lane and
Clark Kent are also...
Featured in this comic.
On the first page, there's also,in the bottom right-hand corner,
a Nick Fury.
Oh, there he is.
Wait, Lois and Superman?
(36:21):
Okay, hold on.
Lois and Super...
Oh, you know what?
I think I found them.
It is on page two, in the topright-hand panel.
in the bottom left-hand corner.
Oh, there they are.
It's the Where's Waldo of X-Men.
Interesting.
I mean, I don't know.
It's weird, but whatever.
I guess it's fine.
(36:41):
Fun little trivia.
So what were your overall...
Okay, now that we've kind ofdiscussed the three books, do
you stick with your seven?
Is that what you would still putthis trilogy at?
I think so, but this issue Iwould also say is far and away
kind of above the other two thatwe talked about today.
Like this one...
There's just like so much thathappens so much to kind of like
(37:03):
talk about.
It's just like a lot of reallygood setup for where things are
now going.
And I guess to me, this is theone where it like really feels
like the X-Men versus this is acomic book.
Now it like feels distinctlyX-Men.
Sure.
Yeah.
I think for me, I agree with alot of what you said.
Particularly, this is likereally kind of showing us an
(37:26):
X-Men team that is developinginto itself.
And we've now moved away fromthem just being this new
iteration, right?
Like they are the X-Men.
They aren't just people who havebeen in an issue or two.
However, I do feel like therewas a lot of time spent on
stories that as of right now,don't necessarily feel all that
(37:49):
impactful.
And like, that's a pacing thing,right?
Like pacing is important.
You want to kind of draw thestories out.
So I'm not going to hold it toohard against them, but between
the two former stories here, thefirst two, it just kind of just
felt meh.
And for that reason, you know,when we went for all the things
(38:09):
that we talked about, the randomdemon, we have Eric, the red
demon, popping in with nocontext and popping out just as
fast.
And those two things to me justwere not great.
But we end on a super strongnote and that to me balances it
all out, all of it.
So I would put this at six and ahalf.
(38:30):
That's fair.
I think one of the things that Iguess I like, like even looking
back at like the first one wediscussed, is that we're getting
more information about who thesepeople are, where we get sort of
the flashback with Storm.
And then if we look at issues 97and 98, I like that we're kind
of continuing to be teased bythis mystery of Professor X's
having these nightmaresinvolving aliens that are just
(38:53):
like shutting him down and he'sgoing through significant worry
about what he's seeing.
building to things, I guess.
I agree.
And not just sticking to like amonster of the week situation.
There's certainly a way to dothat, right?
I think the Fantastic Four is sosuccessful in a lot of their
(39:14):
storytelling because they kindof have like an episodic feel.
So you can pop in and kind ofget this fresh adventure every
time.
But I agree.
Like this, for me as a modernday comic book reader, I like
having narrative.
I like having an overarchingstory.
And I like a payoff.
So to have these kind of threadsstart.
(39:36):
And again, like I understandit's a pacing thing.
I'm not like discrediting thatthis isn't going somewhere,
right?
Like I alluded to, I think theEric the Red stuff will lead
somewhere.
You know, we're immediatelygoing to have the consequences
of this interaction with Lang.
So I know the wheels are inmotion and that really has me
excited.
And even you pointing out what Iwas interpreting, reading that
(39:58):
panel of what looks to beanother being watching Lang,
watching the X-Men has meexcited for what that could be
because it's such a subtlereference.
that it's like a blink in yourmidst, you know?
It's people listening to uswatching someone watching Lane
watching the X-Men.
Yeah, it's like that movie.
(40:19):
Oh, God.
You know the one.
Yeah, you know the one.
Let's just leave it at that.
They're watching them, you know?
Well, that does it for thisepisode of Uncanny Book Club.
Thank you for joining us forIssues 96 through 98, and we
hope to see you next time, wherewe'll be discussing Issues 99
(40:39):
through 101.
Bye! If you enjoyed thispodcast, don't forget to
subscribe, leave a review, orshare with a friend.
UNKNOWN (40:51):
Bye!
Hello and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Faderspiel and joiningme today is my co-host Adam
Ward.
Hello.
Hello, how are you doing today?
Good, man.
I'm excited to talk about thisnext set of arcs that we're
looking at.
I feel like this is like a good,solid few issues that we're
going to cover today.
Maybe on a scale of 1 to 10,what would you rate it before
(00:31):
getting into the meat andpotatoes?
I would say that we probablyjump up to about like a 7.
To me, this arc that we're goingto talk about is kind of the
leading into the next big one,right?
Where things, for me anyways,reading it really felt things
picked up.
All right.
Well, in this podcast, we arediscussing Chris Claremont's
(00:52):
legendary X-Men run as we readthrough it for the very first
time.
We hope that you'll join us andread alongside us or just stick
around and listen in.
Thank you for watching.
Their first mission, as well astheir ill-fated mission to stop
(01:13):
Count Nefaria from letting loosewith America's nuclear weapons.
While the team was successful,issue 95 ends in the death of
Thunderbird.
Issue 96 deals with theimmediate aftermath of
Thunderbird's death.
Cyclops is ruminating and in amix of frustration and grief, he
unleashes his optic blastwithout restraint.
(01:36):
He ends up destroying a bunch oftrees and this thing called the
Cairn The rest of the team isbusy training in the danger
room, and Wolverine gets alittle too aggressive, as
Wolverine is known to do.
And after Nightcrawler teaseshim, he maybe almost
accidentally kills Nightcrawler.
Moira Metagurt shows up.
(01:56):
She is an old flame of ProfessorX and a scientific expert on
mutants.
She joins the mansion as ahousekeeper.
a role that she might be alittle too qualified for.
The demon Kirok escapes thecairn and chases Cyclops back to
the mansion.
There's a big fight here withMoira even joining in with a
machine gun, which is a prettyfunny visual.
(02:18):
Wolverine thinks he's killed itat one point, but Kurok begins
to get back up.
The Professor enters its mindwhen it's weakened and learns
how they can defeat thecreature.
Storm is sent to seal the cairnand destroy the demon at its
source.
She unleashes a powerful blastthat ends up destroying it, and
Kurok disappears.
In this issue, we also get aB-story showing Colonel Rossi of
(02:41):
the U.S.
Army inspecting ProjectArmageddon and its director,
Stephen Lang.
He threatens to shut down theproject, and later on, So Adam,
what are your overall thoughtsabout issue 96?
I thought that it was okay.
I think I touched last time onthe fact that, you know, when we
(03:02):
were talking about Krakoa, itwas just kind of this big beast.
And similarly, that's what wehave here, right?
We have, in essence, twodifferent stories, but at its
roots, really, like at the endof the day, this is a story of
Scott Summers, D.
And I think unfairly, we seeXavier again, essentially giving
(03:26):
Scott a really hard time for asituation he finds himself in,
right?
So, I mean, Scott Summers isregarded by many as one of the
greatest leaders in all ofMarvel.
And Scott is going through themotions here, right?
Like he's coming to terms withthe loss of his first teammate.
You know, the first of many,really, in his storied career.
He is clearly grieving.
(03:47):
And Charles is, as we've talkedabout, has been kind of an
asshole.
And he says, this is a quote, heisn't letting it show.
but he is deeply affected and isbrooding, making mistakes.
So he's giving him a hard timefor grieving, which for anybody
who's gone through that processis very difficult and can come
(04:09):
in waves, right?
Like you can't control when thattakes place.
So it felt like Scott waswrongfully being prosecuted for
feeling his feels, you know?
Yeah, I feel like in some ofthese early issues that we've
gone through, the professor hasa certain...
Yeah, which is, you know, maybeit's the inexperience, right?
(04:37):
Like, I'm trying to put intoperspective for myself, reading
this, you know, this isn't theX-Men that we know today.
Right.
The X-Men we know today arebuilt off of the stories that
Chris told, right?
And we see that here, right?
When we talked last time aboutthe Krakoa era and how we were
(04:58):
witnessing a lot of similaritiesbetween what Jonathan Hickman
wrote in the Krakoa stories andhere right and we see that again
today as we discuss you know thethe introduction of Moira as you
said it was a very funny sceneseeing her come out with the
machine gun to blast Kurok itwas it was very great and as you
(05:19):
also mentioned she's wayoverqualified and it's almost
insulting to see her employed asa maid for Charles Xavier, who,
as you also mentioned, is aformer flame.
So he has a romantic connectionwith this woman, and here he is
hiring her to be a maid in hismansion.
(05:39):
Speaking of romanticconnections, this one's got a
little bit of like a meet cutething going on for Moira and
Banshee, Sean Cassidy.
I mean, I think it was a one waymeet cute.
Well, probably.
But, you know, it starts withhim talking smack about like,
oh, the new housekeeper is goingto be some like old, ugly, blah,
(06:00):
blah, blah.
And then he like answers thedoor and he's like, oh, good
heavens.
Look.
Banshee is constantly surroundedby people who are literally half
his age.
And four times as pretty as him.
Yeah.
What did you think of Kirok?
I think he's he's fine I meanthis issue really to me feels
(06:21):
kind of like a cap on the lasttwo with them kind of invading
Valhalla and then Thunderbird'sdeath and then this is sort of
like kind of the end cap to thatstoryline transition into kind
of what's coming next he feelsokay to me as sort of like this
one issue villain but I couldalso see how you know maybe it
(06:41):
would be interesting to spendlike a few issues with him and
expand on what more like I thinkthis issue is like very very
brief into like who's this dudewhat's he trying to do there's
not a whole lot just becauseit's very self-contained but I
wouldn't be against the idea ofseeing more of him I guess or
the idea of him playing a biggerrole yeah I agree I think
(07:05):
knowing that there arecharacters in the future
especially who kind of floatwith mutant powers kind of like
in this demon space like magicperhaps in the future you know
of x-men right like you see Idon't know if that happens, but
I would imagine it would bereasonable to think.
Yep.
I'm also unsure about whether ornot he's someone that makes a
(07:28):
comeback at any point.
I think certainly the demon typethat they are does, I think,
come back and play a factor inmagic specifically.
I also wanted to talk aboutStorm because we see Storm again
in this story essentially be thefinishing blow.
And I want to applaud Chris formaking Storm this incredibly
(07:51):
powerful and interestingcharacter, like from backstory
to creation, right?
We all know Storm is beingawesome today, right?
with her Storm powers.
But we're now seeingconsecutively, in almost every
issue we see Storm, she isessentially a powerhouse, which,
you know, makes sense.
But this is at a time beforethere was so much lore of the
(08:13):
X-Men to really kind of likepaint this picture of what's
strong, what's not strong.
And Storm here, again, is justincredibly strong, being able to
get away from this fight anddestroy or reseal the Cairn.
Absolutely.
And while we're on the topic ofStorm, this issue does give us a
(08:33):
brief look into her past wherewe can learn a little bit more
about who she is and what kindof all brought her here.
And one thing that you can inferfrom this issue is that she has
an issue with claustrophobia.
This is kind of the first teasethat we get at that.
We see a flashback of her kindof walking presumably with her
(08:54):
parents, skips to the next sceneof her, I guess, covered in the
rubble of a building thatcollapsed, and she shouts out, I
must be free, once we kind ofget a look back at the modern
time.
I really like kind of the subtlenods to these character features
that we are starting to see comethrough, because this is a team,
(09:14):
like, I'm not, maybe you know,but I'm not exactly sure how
much involvement Chris had withthe giant-sized book that kind
of kick-started this team.
I would have to imagine some.
Right.
If he was taking on this nextteam.
Although I think those are X-Menthat are specifically credited
to the writer, the author andthe artist on the book.
(09:37):
So if this was just kind of likecharacters that were given to
Chris without very much input,then I think he's doing a really
nice job of trying to rod in thebackgrounds of these characters
and kind of give them interestsand fears that are going to play
out.
Right.
And you're right.
We are seeing this with stormand we've seen it similarly with
other characters even in theirkind of like brief intros we got
(10:01):
a sense of the type of peoplethat they are we were able to I
think glean that Kurt isreligious that Colossus has this
larger family and comes fromkind of like humble roots and is
I think kind of like theyouthfulness of this book the
most naive one maybe and we evensaw that when he jumped out of
the helicopter right like withthis base assumption that you'd
(10:24):
probably be fine he doesn't knowif he's gonna be but he assumes
he is Alright, well, pickingthings up with issue 97,
Professor X is seen plagued bynightmares involving aliens, and
he's worried that he's startingto go mad.
We see Lorna and Havok arespending some quality time
together, and they're ambushedand their minds get taken over.
(10:45):
Professor X makes good on histalks of going on vacation,
something that he brought up inthe last issue, and he ends up
taking a flight.
Just as he leaves, themind-controlled Lorna, now going
by Polaris, and Havok attempt todestroy the plane.
There's a fight between them andthe X-Men with Havok popping in
and out of his mind control.
(11:06):
We learn that Eric the Red isthe true villain behind this
attempt on Xavier's life.
Lorna is taken out by Storm andthe three current adversaries
flee with Cyclops lining up ashot and deciding not to take
it.
This ends up rubbing Wolverinethe wrong way and the two
briefly get physical beforeStorm stops things from
(11:29):
escalating any further.
At the very end, we see a singleframe continuing last issue's B
story and see that Lang ismonitoring the X-Men with a
tease that the Sentinels will bereturning next issue.
So, the thing that I found mostexciting about this issue,
Polaris finally has a name.
No more spoilers that I have toworry about.
(11:50):
What do you think of her designhere?
It is...
Interesting.
I can understand why she keptthe name Polaris and I can
understand why she didn't keepthis design for her current
costumes.
Yeah, I think I'm definitelymore of a fan of the modern day
appearance for sure.
Purple was definitely, I think,a popular choice for characters
(12:11):
at the time.
It feels more villainous, whichI guess is probably good.
The thing around, I guess, maybelike a cowl or what would we
call that sort of...
It's like a collar.
Yeah, it's very large.
It is very large.
I agree.
On this top, of observationaloccurrences in this book what
are your thoughts on Kurt'shuman form that we see so he has
(12:32):
a some sort of like what is itexactly like a transistor
believe it's image inducer thankyou yes it is referred to that
at some point what do you thinkof his appearance it's very
1970s Actually, it goes back alittle further than that.
This is actually, I'm going tobutcher this.
(12:53):
I want to say it's Errol Flynn.
It's like a movie star from theearly 1900s.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Oh, damn.
Was that explained at one point?
I don't know if it's directlycalled out, but it's one of
those things, if you look inmaybe a trivia or something for
the issue, it calls it out asbeing what's happening.
(13:13):
But no, I want to say the nameof the actor is Errol Flynn.
Yes, you are correct.
Yeah, Errol Flynn.
I think that is how I would alsosay this.
(13:47):
personal life.
His most notable roles includedRobin Hood.
Well, there you go.
Doesn't get more swashbucklerythan Robin Hood, really.
Speaking of womanizing, him andPeter are both interested in
checking out a bunch of ladiesat the airport.
So maybe this look that he'spicked kind of fits out for what
he's going for.
Very possible.
(14:07):
Very possible.
It is interesting.
I'm currently looking at a pagewhere one of the plane, like the
plane crash occurs, where likeit looks as though like the
plane literally flies throughanother plane.
I don't know if that's what'shappened here, but this is right
after Polaris attacks Jean Grey.
It kind of looks like that.
(14:27):
I think what's going on is Havokis destroying other planes as
he's trying to aim for that one.
It's very strange.
If we look at the panel thatwe're looking at where they
mentioned World War III, it'sinteresting because right after
that one, the very next panel,we see the X-Men lying in the
rubble of that airplane,essentially, and then Havoc and
(14:50):
Polaris are both just kind ofchasing after the plane that I
believe Xavier's on.
So I'm re-looking at this page.
So if you see the top panel, thetop right has the pilots
pointing at Havoc and Polaris.
Okay, so you can see that Havocis letting loose his sound
blast.
And in the next panel behind theplane, you can see the same kind
(15:12):
of pattern, the circular patternthat is clearly the sound wave
that's kind of emanating fromhim.
And so I think you are correct.
That is debris from other planescaused by the sound wave as
Charles Xavier's plane is tryingto get away.
And then in the next page, wesee this larger, almost like a
jumbo jet is probably how Iwould describe it.
(15:33):
Looking at this now, this isn'tCharles Xavier's plane crashing
into this, which is how I viewedit originally.
This is actually Kurt hittingHavok, as we see, right?
And that beam destroying theplane.
This is all starting to make alittle bit more sense and less
that Charles Xavier's pilots arerecklessly moving across this
airfield trying to get away.
Although reckless to avoid beinghit, but not reckless enough to
(15:56):
be the ones actually destroyingthese planes.
And you know, they might be.
Now that I'm looking at theplane that Charles is on, it is
a StarCorp plane.
So it's not like he's flyingcoach or anything on like a
regular flight.
I'm assuming that this is like aprivate jet situation.
Yeah, you're 100% right.
Maybe this is a speciallydesigned plane.
I don't know.
But what did you think of Ericthe Red?
(16:17):
So not knowing a lot of whathappened in the comics prior to
this, I thought his introductionwas incredibly confusing.
The you're Eric the Red, but youcan't be Eric the Red.
I was Eric the Red.
So that's a quote from Cyclopswhen we're kind of confronted by
like who is the true villainbehind what's going on in this
(16:38):
issue.
I had no idea what that meantand that was incredibly
confusing.
Yeah, I agree.
I did kind of look up a littlebit afterwards about Eric the
Red.
I still don't know that I havegarnered enough information to
want to talk about it and alsoto avoid spoilers because I know
Eric the Red comes back at somepoint.
I didn't want to spoil anythingfor myself.
(16:59):
I really don't like the design.
It's very bizarre.
Hey, speaking of that, if youdon't like this design, you
should look up what Cyclopslooked like when he was dressed
as Eric the Red, because it'sway better.
And by way better, I mean itlooks like the slutty clothes
that I make a starian wear inBaldur's Gate 3.
(17:21):
Wow, that is very revealing.
It even has like little nipplecovers for him.
It's such a bizarre choice.
The Cyclops Eric the Redcostume.
I mean, it's not far off fromthe Eric the Red we see in the
book.
Although the one we see in thisbook has full pants for one.
Not this with the booty shortsgoing on in the nipple covers.
(17:41):
Well, Scott Summers has greatlegs.
I don't deny that.
You gotta show them off.
Don't deny that.
Yeah, I kind of like, again, ifthis feels a little thrown in,
though I suspect we'll have somesort of payoff in the future.
But right now it just kind offeels like, oh, all right, Eric,
the red, you're here and thenyou're gone.
Very shortly after, againbecause of Storm, overpowering
(18:05):
Polaris.
Yeah, it is a little odd as kindof like looking at it as just
like a one issue and then even alot of what's shown in this
issue isn't really resolved orcontinued in the next one.
But I think we're going to startto see things like that pop up a
lot where we're getting, youknow, a storyline and then...
(18:26):
Maybe it's that next issue, acouple issues down the line, a
few issues we might see itcontinuing on and getting picked
up again.
The other thing I just wanted toquickly touch on, as somebody
who's been pretty defensive ofScott Summers to this point, we
see him very harshly last shownat Wolverine after Wolverine, I
think very fairly pointed outthat he should have fired at his
(18:48):
brother and at Polaris and Ericthe Red, especially given the
fact that Cyclops very clearlyhas some sort of self-control,
right?
He has talked about how he canlet his I-beam go at full power
or that there's a power range ofsome kind so he is hesitant
because he doesn't want to killhis brother right fair enough
(19:08):
but wolverine very obviouslytells him you need to like hit
them you gotta knock them downand very cyclops acts not like
himself up to this point he getsa little cheated and tells logan
that he will kill him yeah imean i feel like at this point
we're still very nearthunderbird's death and we are
(19:30):
probably still seeing him kindof still not in maybe like his
back to his baseline as far asframe of mind he is still like
reeling over that and upset withthat it is a pretty big
overreaction especially since ifhe were to sort of take that
shot in this very I guess clicheaction movie thing where they've
set up where it's like take theshot take the shot and then they
fire the gun in the air yes yeahI feel like he could take the
(19:53):
shot and then storm could catchtheir friends but again you know
don't think too deeply on itkind of a situation I think but
Wolverine's pretty harsh withhim I mean he calls him gutless
that's that's a pretty big dealin the 70s yeah sure yeah that's
that's fair and I alsomistakenly I went and looked
while you were saying that hedoes not threaten to go
Wolverine but we will see thingsunfold over the next couple of
(20:16):
issues where that will changenot necessarily towards
Wolverine but we will see Scottbecome lost in himself again and
lose control of his anger Ithink the tease that we get here
at the end of the book to me iswhat I have been waiting for
this looming figure of somethingthing coming.
And the Sentinels represent theboogeyman for mutants, right?
(20:37):
They are the epitome ofeverything that hates them.
So we get this tease of what'sto come.
And I'm very excited.
Very, very excited.
It is always fun to see aclassic villain show up.
And I believe this would be kindof our first look at someone
that is sort of that classicvillain of, you know, they've
been in the issues before this,and then they've had like a
(21:00):
staying power over the last 50years.
100%.
And Lang is interesting becausehe becomes this sticking foil
for the X-Men, as you kind ofalluded to.
And I think this team has neededsomething to kind of bring them
back into the X-Men universethat has kind of been
established to this point andbecause when you see the X-Men
(21:21):
walk away right like we see theoriginal X-Men walk away and
during that time it's it'sstrange to me that they would
walk away into a world that isgoing to hate them the way that
they are right and each one ofthem can blend in with society
fairly well so that's not animpossible thing to do but even
up to this point we haven'treally seen a ton of music
mutant hate with these newX-Men, right?
(21:45):
We've seen a bit of it withCount Nefarious, but he was just
kind of a prick to begin with.
It wasn't, it's not the same asthis.
This is, Lang is literallysomebody who hates mutants,
right?
He hates everything that theyrepresent.
And the X-Men were built torepresent that sort of real life
(22:05):
hate that can happen.
And that's, this kind of bringsus back to the core of what the
X-Men are.
were kind of built around.
So I'm very excited.
Can I ask you a weird randomquestion?
On the very last page of thisissue, whose arm is that?
So we see Stephen laying over acontrol board and looking at a
monitor of the X-Men at theairport.
But then we also have like thisscene directly behind him where
(22:28):
it looks like, is that somebodyelse looking at laying on a
monitor?
Or what's happening here?
It kind of looks that way.
That's not something that Ipicked up on my first time
reading this.
I did find it odd.
And now that you've pointed itout, I can't not see it.
I'm just trying to quickly lookat the yellow paneling to see if
it gives any indication of whatwe're kind of seeing here like
(22:50):
we see this kind of likeprologue of Cyclops walking away
I do like that there's a littleshot of a sentinel leg oh yeah
there is do yeah and the horrorof that day will be that they'll
kill without ever knowing thereason why that they won't be
men at all merely puppetsdancing on a string Well, there
we go.
(23:11):
I guess we'll have to wait andsee.
Maybe it is related.
I'm not entirely sure.
It almost looks a bit like aspider.
It does kind of look like that,but it's definitely not.
I don't think anyways.
Where was Peter Parker when thisissue came out?
Where's Get Me Spider-Man?
It would have been funny ifSpider-Man was on the next
cover, but not the case.
(23:31):
If only.
If only.
But we do get this really coolshot of the Sentinels on top of
a building.
Again, with the Sentinels areback, enough said.
Which, again, I think that'svery warranted and, again, just
roots them back down into X-Menlore, really.
What did you kind of think ofthis?
This is a bit of the capstone ofthe setup, I guess, is probably
(23:53):
the best way of thinking it aswe do get quite the escalation,
right?
Yeah, I think looking at thesethree issues, 97 is for me more
of kind of like a low point.
96 is sort of that end cap onlike an earlier situation.
I feel like 98 is a reallyexciting issue and there ends up
kind of being a lot to unpackfrom it.
(24:13):
Yeah, I think of all threestories, I had the most to
discuss with this issue.
So why don't you tee us up?
So in issue 98, it's Christmastime in the Marvel Universe and
the X-Men are out for somequality time in Manhattan.
Scott and Jean eventually splitoff, as does Banshee and Moira,
who are now dating as well.
Everyone is sort of quicklyinterrupted, though, because, as
(24:36):
the cover of this issue let usknow about, the Sentinels are
back.
Cyclops and Jean Grey take onthe first batch, but eventually
Jean is kidnapped.
Banshee and Wolverine are seenrushing off to do battle, and
Storm ends up saving Cyclopsfrom a deadly fall before
fouling another Sentinel withher winds.
We learn that Wolverine andBanshee were also taken taken by
(24:57):
the Sentinels.
Things then cut over toProfessor X's vacation with Dr.
Peter Korbo, director of theUN's Project StarCorp, where the
two of them are fishing on ayacht.
A Sentinel attack occurs thereas well, leading to the
destruction of the boat andProfessor X also being taken.
We see the X-Men restrained andwith a bunch of science stuff
(25:18):
attached to them.
Dr.
Lang gloats and smacks Jeanafter the two of them have a bit
of a tiff.
This ends up enraging Wolverine,who breaks free and begins
attacking the Project Armageddonthugs.
The X-Men fight their way free,but after they break through
some walls, we get a shot ofBanshee's shocked face.
Dr.
Corbo finds the remaining X-Menat the mansion, and between all
(25:40):
of them, it's deduced that thekidnapped X-Men were taken into
space.
Yeah, and space looks awesome inthese books.
It looks so good.
Even as we saw at the beginningof the last issue, right, with
Charles kind of like lookingout, having these I mean, I
interpreted it like they werestarships.
It just looked awesome.
(26:01):
I love the way that they depictspace in these books.
We'll save that conversation forlater.
What are your thoughts on, like,given that this is the first
time we're seeing Sentinels,what are your general thoughts
on how they look?
There's something really, Idon't know what it is.
The Sentinels look really good.
To me, they don't seem verydated.
There's something very timelessabout this design, which I think
(26:24):
is not necessarily their firstdesign.
this is at some point there wasa redesign I always sort of just
like cringe thinking about whatwe got for like the X-Men movies
for Sentinels they just don'tlook like good and right to me
like this is very close to whatends up being in the cartoon
that was in the 90s and isn'tthat far off from how the
(26:44):
Sentinels look today Idefinitely have you know we
talked about in our last episodeabout how I think the X-Men
cartoon it for us anyways islike a very specific moment in
time that we associate with thex-men and so my first exposure
to the sentinels was a hundredpercent in that show and seeing
them depicted here like i knowexactly what this is there is
(27:06):
something very unsettling abouttheir appearance it's this maybe
it's their eyes like this darkthey just have like the dark
eyes dead cold yeah the deadcold eyes i can see how they
would strike fear and mutantkind i mean hell in humans you
don't even need to be a mutantto be afraid of these things
they are intimidating dating oneobservation I had when we see
(27:30):
this battle taking place betweenthe X-Men and the Sentinels
Scott uses his eye blast throughhis sunglasses and I don't know
that I've ever seen that beforebecause aren't they in practice
essentially a shield for hiseyes so if you look at that
panel it's almost it's more hisglasses have like a flip up the
(27:50):
ruby quartz lens flips up ohyou're totally right that's how
his vice works too where it'sjust like an up and down door
that moves on him so he can likecrack them open and have a small
blast or he can open open themand have more come out thank you
thank you for pointing that outit was bothering me when i was
reading it thinking what thehell is this it's really easy to
(28:13):
miss especially because it'sshown a few panels back first
where it's very easy to see likeoh his themes are coming out of
his sunglasses it looks weirdthough it does look weird but
that's kind of all that's allflip up lenses i Sorry to the
flip up lens gang out there.
He needs those transitions forhimself.
So we see Scott kind of takecare of a couple of these.
(28:34):
You mentioned Storm gets in onthe action as well.
And no surprise, Team Storm.
I love that we finally get tosee Xavier on vacation.
Number one, has long talkedabout vacation because he's
stressed out.
And when they are attacked bythe Sentinels, he uses his Mind
Blast, as it is described in thepanel, on the Sentinel and it
(28:55):
seemed to work.
Do you know if there is anin-lore reason why Mind Blasts
work on a robot?
So this is something Somethingthat I looked up a little bit.
Apparently it's one of thosecomic inconsistencies where
sometimes Professor X can mindblast the Sentinel, sometimes he
can't.
Okay, the rule of cool.
Yeah, essentially they're justruling rule of cool, but when I
(29:18):
read this I was like, what isgoing on?
I'm glad that I wasn't crazy inthinking this.
I thought it was very bizarre,frankly speaking.
You mentioned the tit for tatthat Jean has with Lange.
I wrote down a very specificquote that she references.
Where's your swastika, Lange?
You don't look dressed withoutit.
I think I laughed so hardreading it because I was not
(29:40):
expecting it.
And it really, I think, paintsthe picture, as I was previously
talking about how Langerepresents pure evil, right?
Pure hatred.
And so her making that commentlike really sets the scene a lot
without having to have a lot ofexposition around why he hates
mutants.
It's also a lot of these oldissues have sort of a it's 50
(30:04):
years ago, like everybody'scalling each other like Mr.
Buster, things like that.
I mean, that sounds likesomething that you could throw
in a comic today and that readsnormal to me.
Like, that's just like kind of agood insult.
Yeah, I mean, considering thiswould have come out in the
1970s, with that in mind, tohave that kind of that picture
painted of a character is verytelling, right?
(30:24):
That would paint a very specificperson in people's minds as it
should today.
But in the 1970s, you're a lotcloser to the Second World War.
And that image, of a nazi is ithink very fresh in their minds
reading it now i mean i knowexactly what i'm thinking about
(30:44):
good on chris i think it wassuch a clever comeback and i
think really paints gene as avery clever character yeah both
like mentally and with wit andkind of speaking of that
situation uh we see wolverinepair out in anger after he sees
gene is essentially slapped it'sinteresting to me and especially
in the context that at the startof this issue it's mentioned
(31:06):
that the x-men have beentogether for almost a full year
at this point it's interestingto me that nobody knew that
wolverine's claws were part ofhim and not like his costume i
think that also still speaks alot to who wolverine is he's a
loner he's very guarded andisn't one to just like share all
(31:28):
these things about him do theyeven know that he has a healing
factor i'm not sure i don't eventhink that's been discussed yet
really if i'm not mistaken butWe do see, again, like this
really cool action sequence onthe space station with all these
sentinels.
It really kind of creates animage of how vast this space
station must be, right?
(31:49):
To have these sentinels, whichare at least 15 feet high, maybe
more, you know, like they'rehuge.
Somewhere between 15 and 30,depending on how it's drawn.
Yeah, 100%.
So you have this really coolfight that happens on the space
station.
Cassidy blasting through thehull of this space station.
into space as the X-Men aretrying to figure out, well,
(32:10):
they're not anywhere on Earth.
Where could they be?
Oh, they're in space.
There they are.
I think a very fun way of endingthe issue and kind of like these
three books and I think setssuch a great foundation for the
next set where we get thecontinuation of the story, which
is, you know, I'm hooked, right?
Like after reading this, I'mready, man.
(32:32):
I've been waiting for this.
Like I've been waiting for theChris Claremont storytelling
that has made this run soimportant to people and this is
like I'm so I'm so jazzed I'm sojazzed 100% I think this this
issue and like kind of the nextfew really sort of pick up the
pace a lot yeah and I mean itstarts to make sense right like
(32:52):
you have an X-Men team that's ayear now under their belts it
paints this picture of a familyunit more so than you know we've
had just one or two adventuresyou know there's this suspension
of belief that you have to havewhen you read these kinds of
books of you know there arethings happening that we don't
see right like there was anarrative taking place over a
(33:12):
course of time you as a readerhave to buy into the idea that
the x-men are going onadventures that we don't see
right like they maybe they'renot super big but there are
things happening in the worldand especially in a book like
this where you have like a largetime gap right that kind of
takes place over the course ofthe books because literally last
issue like i'm sorry not lastissue but last episode they were
(33:33):
just formed right so like we'reonly like seven books into this
run and And here we've nowestablished a year under their
belts.
It really paints a picture of ateam that's coming together and
makes a lot of the interactionsthat we're going to see in the
coming issues all that moreimportant.
So there's one more Wolverinething that I wanted to mention
before we move on from that.
(33:53):
Did you notice when they'recaptive and they're doing all
the science stuff on them thatthey make a comment about him
having like a unique nature orhe's not like reading is like a
mutant at first?
Yes, yes.
So I don't I don't know ifYou're aware of this.
I did a little bit of internetresearch because I was curious
about that.
Apparently, Wolverine wasoriginally planned to be an
(34:15):
actual real-life Wolverineanimal that was morphed into a
man by the high evolutionary,but they ended up dropping that
storyline.
Stop.
Okay, hold on.
A literal Wolverine turned toman?
Like a reverse werewolf?
Yes.
Well, I mean, the HighEvolutionary does a lot of weird
(34:35):
man-animal hybrid situations,but he was supposed to be like,
hey, we'll turn a wolverine intoa human and see what happens
kind of a situation, I guess.
Thank goodness they scrappedthat.
What a terrible idea.
Yeah, his real origin is alittle bit cooler.
Yeah, way cooler.
Yeah, the line here says, quote,I don't know, sir.
Is this Wolverine a mutant?
(34:57):
His readings are nothing likethe others.
But mutant or no, whatever theWolverine is, he isn't human.
And then he brags about hischrome alloy shackles that are
unbreakable.
And then instantly broken.
Yeah, yeah.
Within a couple of seconds,Wolverine just cuts them off and
(35:18):
that's that.
And then we see this mass exodusof people.
The only other thing I wanted tobring up with this issue in
particular, I don't know howmany of like the weird cameos
that you caught in this one.
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
No, maybe.
Like I do recall seeing Beast atone point, maybe.
Am I crazy?
I don't think Beast, but there'sthe panel when Gene and Scott
(35:40):
kiss.
You have Jack Kirby and Stan Leehaving a discussion about like,
what are they doing?
They didn't do this when we hadthe book.
And then I think at the veryfirst page, actually, They're by
the ice skating rink.
Dr.
Doom is ice skating.
Wait, that's supposed to beStanley.
He looks like Dr.
(36:00):
Strange.
A little bit.
But yeah, so then in addition toJack Kirby, Stanley, and Dr.
Doom, apparently, I forget whichpanel it is, but Lois Lane and
Clark Kent are also...
Featured in this comic.
On the first page, there's also,in the bottom right-hand corner,
a Nick Fury.
Oh, there he is.
Wait, Lois and Superman?
(36:21):
Okay, hold on.
Lois and Super...
Oh, you know what?
I think I found them.
It is on page two, in the topright-hand panel.
in the bottom left-hand corner.
Oh, there they are.
It's the Where's Waldo of X-Men.
Interesting.
I mean, I don't know.
It's weird, but whatever.
I guess it's fine.
(36:41):
Fun little trivia.
So what were your overall...
Okay, now that we've kind ofdiscussed the three books, do
you stick with your seven?
Is that what you would still putthis trilogy at?
I think so, but this issue Iwould also say is far and away
kind of above the other two thatwe talked about today.
Like this one...
There's just like so much thathappens so much to kind of like
(37:03):
talk about.
It's just like a lot of reallygood setup for where things are
now going.
And I guess to me, this is theone where it like really feels
like the X-Men versus this is acomic book.
Now it like feels distinctlyX-Men.
Sure.
Yeah.
I think for me, I agree with alot of what you said.
Particularly, this is likereally kind of showing us an
(37:26):
X-Men team that is developinginto itself.
And we've now moved away fromthem just being this new
iteration, right?
Like they are the X-Men.
They aren't just people who havebeen in an issue or two.
However, I do feel like therewas a lot of time spent on
stories that as of right now,don't necessarily feel all that
(37:49):
impactful.
And like, that's a pacing thing,right?
Like pacing is important.
You want to kind of draw thestories out.
So I'm not going to hold it toohard against them, but between
the two former stories here, thefirst two, it just kind of just
felt meh.
And for that reason, you know,when we went for all the things
(38:09):
that we talked about, the randomdemon, we have Eric, the red
demon, popping in with nocontext and popping out just as
fast.
And those two things to me justwere not great.
But we end on a super strongnote and that to me balances it
all out, all of it.
So I would put this at six and ahalf.
(38:30):
That's fair.
I think one of the things that Iguess I like, like even looking
back at like the first one wediscussed, is that we're getting
more information about who thesepeople are, where we get sort of
the flashback with Storm.
And then if we look at issues 97and 98, I like that we're kind
of continuing to be teased bythis mystery of Professor X's
having these nightmaresinvolving aliens that are just
(38:53):
like shutting him down and he'sgoing through significant worry
about what he's seeing.
building to things, I guess.
I agree.
And not just sticking to like amonster of the week situation.
There's certainly a way to dothat, right?
I think the Fantastic Four is sosuccessful in a lot of their
(39:14):
storytelling because they kindof have like an episodic feel.
So you can pop in and kind ofget this fresh adventure every
time.
But I agree.
Like this, for me as a modernday comic book reader, I like
having narrative.
I like having an overarchingstory.
And I like a payoff.
So to have these kind of threadsstart.
(39:36):
And again, like I understandit's a pacing thing.
I'm not like discrediting thatthis isn't going somewhere,
right?
Like I alluded to, I think theEric the Red stuff will lead
somewhere.
You know, we're immediatelygoing to have the consequences
of this interaction with Lang.
So I know the wheels are inmotion and that really has me
excited.
And even you pointing out what Iwas interpreting, reading that
(39:58):
panel of what looks to beanother being watching Lang,
watching the X-Men has meexcited for what that could be
because it's such a subtlereference.
that it's like a blink in yourmidst, you know?
It's people listening to uswatching someone watching Lane
watching the X-Men.
Yeah, it's like that movie.
(40:19):
Oh, God.
You know the one.
Yeah, you know the one.
Let's just leave it at that.
They're watching them, you know?
Well, that does it for thisepisode of Uncanny Book Club.
Thank you for joining us forIssues 96 through 98, and we
hope to see you next time, wherewe'll be discussing Issues 99
(40:39):
through 101.
Bye! If you enjoyed thispodcast, don't forget to
subscribe, leave a review, orshare with a friend.
UNKNOWN (40:51):
Bye!
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